The Local Government Ombudsman has confirmed to me that my complaint about the clothing allowance being provided to Labour councillors for the last thirty years is being fully investigated.

The £12860 allowance, paid to the Chair and Vice Chair, which for thirty years have been Labour councillors is an utter disgrace.

The Chair already gets £13300 for being a councillor, plus £6650 for being Chair, so why on earth they then need £12860 clothing allowance is beyond me.

The Labour vice chair said she can’t do the job in tatty clothes. I wonder how many residents in County Durham get paid to go out and buy thousands of pounds of clothes. Labour in this county are utterly out of touch with the electorate, and I hope tomorrow that this shows in the way people vote in the LOCAL election.

Please support Amanda, Mamie and I in the election tomorrow, and if you don’t live in our area, please support your local Lib Dem councillor.

We have consistently  tried to make county hall more accountable and to make sure that the money the council has is spent more wisely.

Labour think nothing of wasting money and mismanaging things. They sold a stately home for £241,000 when they were offered £1.5m for it. They refused to cut excessive councillor allowances to help protect the Citizens Advice Bureau funding, and they refused to bring down the cost of 20 million miles worth of mileage claims every year by Durham County Council.

This is the tip of the iceberg. With every week that passes more examples of waste are found. We must have more non-Labour councillors on this authority if it is to ever change, and the best way to get that change is to vote Lib Dem tomorrow.

Went down to county hall today and was surprised to find most of the streetlights in the county hall car park blazing away in the middle of the day, including every single one in the Councillors car park. Certainly no dim view for councillors there then? Fingers crossed that next weekend all the lights will have gone out on Labour in County Durham.

If you spot a streetlight on anywhere in the county, just email Hal@durham.gov.uk with the streetlight number and location.

I suppose I should report the lights at county hall just in case no-one else noticed them.

I think I’ll try and find out how much we are spending on electricity for street-lighting too.

The work to fill in all the potholes on and around Garden Avenue has started. Already a great improvement.

Good to see also that after five years of trying all of Caterhouse Road has now been resurfaced.

I also kicked up a fuss about the fact that despite repeated requests over a year, holes in the footpaths on part of Lilac Avenue, near the bungalows hadn’t been touched – typical labour council communication failures. thankfully today a good long stretch of pavement was resurfaced.

Finally the roadsweeper has been out in our area. Aykley Vale has seen its first sweep in I don’t know how long. I think the change in management we secured is having a real effect. The guys are doing a good job.

Still more to do though. Don’t forget to return your postal vote unless you want five more years of clothing allowances for Labour councillors.

Just had a look for the pages showing councillors allowances and can only find last years (2011-12). It may be that the council has only ever kept one years worth of expenses online, but given that elections are every five years, it seems only sensible and transparent for every year to be available for residents to view. The year which just ended hasn’t been publicly released yet (12-13), so I can’t put that on here but the rest are.

Excluding the Clothing Allowance for Labour councillors, as obviously they never published that, surprise, surprise.

DCCAllowances11-12_rev

CouncillorsAllowances1011

CouncillorsAllowances0910_REV1

CouncillorsAllowances0809

It is quite staggering to think that at least one Labour councillor has claimed FOUR TIMES MORE in subsistence claims than all 21 Lib Dem councillors COMBINED!

Most people should receive their postal votes for the Elections tomorrow or Wednesday. If you haven’t received yours by Thursday, contact the council or let me know and I will check why.

Durham County Council is required to publish all payments over £500, however it is paying out millions of pounds of payments to individuals and is using data protection laws to ensure that no-one knows who these payments are made to. Anyone can go and view the files, with literally hundreds of payments every month REDACTED. given the recent horrendous reports of waste and mismanagement I fail to see how the general public of County Durham can trust this.

Here is the link the pages with the information on and below that the report of this in the Northern Echo today.

http://www.durham.gov.uk/Pages/Service.aspx?ServiceId=8465

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/council/durhamcountycouncil/10368082.Council_defends_redacted_payments/

In Framwellgate Moor, Pity Me and Brasside, as well as Newton Hall, residents have the opportunity to vote for the local Lib Dem team of Amanda Hopgood, Mamie Simmons and me! Many of you supported us when we were successful in stopping Labour close the leisure centre and have seen the massive investment we have ensured for the centre over the last year or so.

Many residents have also supported us in campaigning to stop Labour slashing opening hours at Newton Hall library, with over 1000 signing our petition.

We have also handed in a huge petition fighting against the over development of the greenbelt and have been the only candidates fighting all along to protect the greenbelt with tens of thousands of leaflets delivered mentioning the issue over the last few years. We will continue this campaign.

We have also ensured, working with the Community Centre committee, that Labour couldn’t shut down the centre. It’s original plans would have seen this happen, but as soon as I found out about these plans I started to get as much work done to the centre as possible, contributing from council funds towards new computers, windows and a new carpark. By bringing down the cost of repairs and increasing the number of users, this moved the centre into the invest category and if re-elected all three of your Lib Dem candidates have committed to helping secure investment into the community centre so that the community can take over and run it without the interference of the County Council. This will ensure that into the future it cannot be used by Labour as a political football.

The new play facilities in Newton Hall and Framwellgate Moor which your Lib Dem councillors were involved in securing are looking great and are well used now. The tens of thousands of pounds we secured for the projects helped to get them off the ground, and by working non-politically with residents, the Parish Council, young people and local groups, the result is fantastic. We have now secured new facilities for Caterhouse Road after a near 2 year battle with the Labour – run council. We hope to see these facilities installed in time for the summer.

Across the area we have also worked to  get more roads and footpaths resurfaced than at any time in the past. With a Labour county councillor for many years in the Framwellgate Moor Division so many roads were falling to bits. In just a few short years dozens of roads and footpaths have been repaired and resurfaced after Lib Dem intervention. We can’t risk going back to having Labour county councillors in our area, and most people we have been talking to around the area totally agree.

Labour are so desperate I have even had reports from residents saying that Labour are telling them that work I have secured to be done will not get done. This kind of electioneering is from the gutter and is not being accepted by residents contacting me.

Work to resurface South Lea and Brookside in Witton Gilbert have just been completed, work started today on Caterhouse Road and I have been told that pothole repair work I have funded from local budgets around the terraces behind Fram Moor Front St should start next week (though this could be delayed). The repair work at the top of Lund Av was finished last week.

I notice in the Northern Echo this week that the Labour Portfolio Holder for regeneration is defending his department overspending by £5m on the Thinford Roundabout work (total cost £14m of taxpayers money). He says that the overspend is coming out of the contingency budget within the department. So in effect his view is – we had £4-5m not allocated to anything, so it doesn’t matter that we are now using it all half a mile from his house on an over budget project! Labour need to wake up and realise that across the County, with their £250million pounds backlog of road and pavement repairs, wasting money like this isn’t just unacceptable, it is downright immoral. If we are to ever change County Durham for the better we must have as few Labour councillors after May’s elections as possible.

I hope everyone across the new Framwellgate and Newton Hall Division will support the Lib Dem team and across County Durham will send the message to Labour that they can’t waste our County’s money like they wasted money nationally in government for 13 years.

With elections just two weeks ago, anyone living in Bearpark and Witton Gilbert will definitely have new councillors in two weeks time.

Witton Gilbert is now in a Division with Langley Park and the rural villages out towards Tow Law. Arnie Simpson and Paul Guy, both ex-district councillors with a lot of experience are standing for the Lib Dems and are the only candidates who live in Witton Gilbert standing. The conservative candidates live in Coxhoe and Durham City, the Labour candidates live together in Cornsay Colliery. For Witton Gilbert residents there is finally the chance to elect County councillors who live in the village. Please support Arnie and Paul in Witton Gilbert. Arnie can be contacted on 01913712161, and Paul on 01913710455

Bearpark is now with other villages in the Deerness Valley for the elections and three councillors will be elected. Present County Councillor for Esh Winning and Ushaw Moor, John Wilkinson is standing for the Lib Dems with well known local business woman Andrea Watts and parish Councillor John Kelly. The three of them will make an excellent team and will continue to improve the area and push to make sure that the areas get the best possible deal from the Council. John Wilkinson can be contacted on 01913733173 and will discuss any issues with Andrea and John K.

Seven HGV counters have been installed around the area following my requests after complaints about HGVs using roads around Framwellgate Moor and Pity Me. These have been installed on Front Street, High Carr Road, Dryburn Road, Finchale Road and Abbey Road to determine the number of HGVs and where they are coming from, which will hopefully help in determining what can be done to reduce the problems caused by these large vehicles, which include noise, vibrations and road damage.

I have been in discussions with highways officers about amendments to signage around the area as well, to ensure that HGVs visiting  Abbey Industrial Estate and the Arnison Centre are properly directed to Rotary Way and Pity Me Bypass.